Monday, February 28, 2011

Christians views on sexuality: unsuitable for children

UPDATE: there's been some chatter about the significance of this case being exagerated, but see Fr Tim Finnigan for a closer reading of the judgement.

Are you surprised? You shouldn't be. I've been banging on about this happening for ages.

Christian Concern reports this afternoon (28/02/2011) that in a landmark judgment, which will have a serious impact on the future of fostering and adoption in the UK, the High Court has suggested that Christians with traditional views on sexual ethics are unsuitable as foster carers, and that homosexual ‘rights’ trump freedom of conscience in the UK. The Judges stated that Christian beliefs on sexual ethics may be ‘inimical’ to children, and they implicitly upheld an Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) submission that children risk being ‘infected’ by Christian moral beliefs.Read more.

Appealing to the state's tolerance of all reasonable religious and ethical belief systems is not going to work; it is this which got us into this situation in the first place.

First, we are told to respect everyone else's views.Second, we are told the Christianity should not be given any privileges in education or political decision making.Third, the only acceptable basis for education and decision-making is hedonistic materialism, because this is neutral, insofar as it doesn't assume any controversial metaphysical view is correct (actually it does, it just doen't assume Chrisitianity is correct, and Christianity is the paradigm case of a controversial metaphysical view).Fourth, any views incompatible with hedonistic materialism will cramp the ability of people to seek pleasure in a materialistic way, and so must not be imposed on children.